Meet the Allentown Olympian Behind Valley Preferred Cycling Center

His drive and discipline catapulted him to the pinnacle of professional cycling. He has a trophy case packed with hardware, evidence of a career dedicated to perfecting his athletic prowess. Although his achievements are many and mighty, Marty Nothstein still can’t control the weather. And that’s what has this executive director of Trexlertown’s Valley Preferred Cycling Center a little worried on a soggy March day still laden with the aftermath of a surprise late-winter snow storm. “Our programs kick off in two weeks,” Nothstein explains. And there’s much to be done to get the track ready for the thousands of cyclists and fans of all ages who will descend on T-Town over the next few months. Lucky for all those speedsters on two wheels and the folks who delight in watching them, Nothstein is up to the challenge, ready to roll up his shirtsleeves and dig in. “I don’t like sitting still,” he says. “I like staying busy.”

Nothstein was goal-oriented from a young age. “I always wanted to go to the Olympics,” he says. “I just didn’t know it would be through cycling.” One of five children born to Wayne and Gail Nothstein in Allentown in 1971, Nothstein grew up in the shadow of the cycling center, known then as the Lehigh County Velodrome. The very first race at the venue was held in 1975—right around the time he may have been taking the training wheels off his first bike. But Nothstein says that although he drove past the track on a daily basis, football, baseball and wrestling were more his speed when it came to sports. Then, when he was 15 years old, a neighbor convinced him to try out the Air Products Developmental Cycling Program, a free introductory pass into the world of competitive cycling. “Kids are given a bike, helmet and coaching,” Nothstein says. The rest is up to them. Six years later, Nothstein was a world champion.

The accolades continued to pile up in the years that followed. He earned the nickname “The Blade” for his ability to slice through a pack of competitors and win by razor-thin margins. Some of his greatest victories came when he was nursing serious injuries. Among the highlights: He captured the silver medal in the match sprint at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, narrowly missing out on the top spot on the podium. Four years later he was back in the Games in Sydney, determined to make sure history would not repeat itself. Sure enough, he brought home the gold, making him the first American cyclist in 16 years to do so in the match sprint. The following year, in 2001, he turned professional in road racing, first with the Mercury Viatel team, and then with the Navigators Insurance team. Nothstein hung up his helmet in 2006, having cemented his status as one of the most decorated cyclists in U.S. history.

Of course, Nothstein had no intention of completely walking away from the sport—or the town—that had shaped him as an athlete and as a man. Although his cycling career had taken him all over the world, the next chapter of his life would bring him home, back to the place where it all started; he was hired as executive director of the Valley Preferred Cycling Center in 2009. “The cornfields [around the track] are gone, but the venue is still here. I’ve always liked coming back to the Valley,” says Nothstein. “I truly love this place.”

And it’s a good thing he does—the track is his home away from home during the spring and summer months. “The end of May through September will be [working] 12-hour days, every day,” he says. Under his guidance, the track has expanded its slate of community programs.

The calendar is jam-packed with competitions, classes, team practices and “open bike” nights, ensuring that all athletes, from beginners to seasoned cyclists, can find their niche at the track. Nothstein says the children’s programs are especially popular. One of the most rewarding perks of his job, he says, is watching the first-timers get on the track and pedal their way to a new passion. “These are people who lucked into cycling,” he says. He can relate, after all; the same program that propelled him into the sport as a teenager is still going strong at the track.

A separate league—the Red Robin Marty Nothstein Bicycle Racing League, also known as BRL—gives young cyclists their first taste of competitive racing every spring and fall. Fortunately for those newbies, they can hone their craft at one of the best outdoor facilities in North America. “I like to call it the Yankee Stadium of track cycling,” says Nothstein. “There’s no other program like it in the world.”

There’s an electricity in the air every Friday night in the summer, when T-Town hosts the World Series of Bicycling. “We have a great cycling community in the Lehigh Valley,” he says. “It’s not unusual for us to have [athletes from] 18 different nations in the Lehigh Valley, training for competition. It really is a field of dreams for a lot of riders.”

Although the Valley Preferred Cycling Center has produced its fair share of champions, not everyone will compete for a world championship or Olympic glory. And that’s just fine with Nothstein. “We’re not trying to create the next gold medalist. If that happens, great. We can create a path to that success. But cycling is a sport that sets the ground work to help these kids through life,” he says.

Nothstein is walking proof of what’s possible when lessons learned on the track are applied outside of the sports arena. Two years ago, he decided to dip his toe in the political arena. He ran for—and won—a spot on the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners in 2015. In January of this year, he was elected chairman of the board. Nothstein says one of his top priorities is ensuring the preservation of farmland and open space in the county. He says, “I love giving back to the community that’s given me so much.”

In what little free time he does have, Nothstein, a married father of two adult children, says he enjoys riding his bike, naturally, and trying his hand at other outdoor sports like hunting and fishing. In addition, he recently purchased a farm in Schuylkill County, and he owns and operates a car wash in Schnecksville. He’s always looking for new opportunities to try something different: “I run out of time every day.”

While contemplating what he’ll sink his teeth into next, he’ll continue to serve as the unofficial mayor of T-Town. You can catch him at the track any Friday night throughout the summer, taking in the action from the sidelines. He might be high-fiving some of the cyclists after they duke it out over a particularly grueling lap. He might be offering a few words of encouragement and advice, as only The Blade can, to a competitor who just couldn’t summon his A game on this particular evening. Regardless of how the night shapes up, and who’s standing on the winner’s podium at the end of it, you can be sure he’s loving every minute of the role he has played, and continues to play, in making sure cycling maintains a prominent place on the Lehigh Valley’s radar. “I show up every single day excited and motivated,” he says.